- 1963-1967: Student at the Linguistics Faculty of Hanoi General University .

- December 1967- July 1968: Officer at the Documentary Desk of the Study Review (now the Communist Review)

- July 1968 - August 1973: Editor of the Party Building Department
of the Communist Review. He experienced a period of probation in Thanh
Oai district, Ha Tay province (now Hanoi ) in 1971 and was Secretary
of the Youth Union of the Communist Review from 1969 to 1973

- August 1973 – April 1976: Underwent a political-economic
post-graduate course at the High-level Nguyen Ai Quoc Party School (now
the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration),
member of the Party cell committee.

- May 1976 -
August 1980: Editor of the Party Building Department of the Communist
Review, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee

- September 1980 - August 1981: Learnt Russian at the High-level Nguyen Ai Quoc Party School

- September 1981 - July 1983: On-the-job trainee and defended Associate
PhD thesis (now PhD thesis) in Party building at the Academy of
Social Sciences of the Soviet Union

- August 1983 -
February 1989: Deputy head of the Party Building Department, the
Communist Review (October 1983); Head of the Party Building Department,
the Communist Review (September 1987); Deputy Secretary of the Party
Committee of the Communist Review (July 1985-December 1988) and then
Secretary (December 1988-December 1991)

- March 1989 – April 1990: Member of the Editorial Board of the Communist Review

- May 1990 – July 1991: Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Review

- August 1996 - February 1998: Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party
Committee, Head of the Hanoi Party Committee's department in charge of
tertiary education personnel, and head of the Hanoi Party Committee’s
Popularisation and Education Board

- December 1997 - now: Member of the Political Bureau of the CPVCC (8th, 9th and 10th tenures)

- February 1998 - January 2000: In charge of the Party Central
Committee's Ideological-Cultural and Scientific-Educational Affairs

- August 1999-April 2001: Permanent member of the Party Politburo

- March 1998 - August 2006: Vice Chairman of the CPVCC's Theoretical
Council (March 1998-November 2001); Chairman of the CPVCC's Theoretical
Council in charge of the Party's theoretical work (November 2001-August
2006)

- January 2000 - June 2006: Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee (12th , 13th and 14th tenures).

- May 2002 - now: Deputy to the 11th and 12th National Assembly

- June 2006 - now: Secretary of the National Assembly's Party
Organisation, Chairman of the National Assembly and member of the
Council for Defence and Security

- Elected General Secretary of the 11th CPVCC at the 11th National Party Congress in January 2011./.